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Saturday, July 04, 2015

You must eat the raspberries right away or freeze them. Any other method of storing them at home did not work for us. We tried not washing and leaving them covered as well as not washing and keeping in the fridge but we lost most of them to mold.

Blueberries are hardy and easy to keep... but when you have over a gallon of them, the recipes start to lose their excitement. Freezing some is a good option and one of these days I am going to try canning which is likely the BEST option.

Strawberry season is fast and furious and we missed the abundance this year.

Birds do not eat the farmer's blueberries and raspberries but devour mine in my home garden.

Berry picking can be expensive.

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The girls loved this so much, as did I. We will definitely go again but I wish there were more organic farms near us. I appreciate that many do their best to use pest management and other methods but hate the idea of sprays being put all over our berries.

I have planted two blueberry bushes and one raspberry bush of my own and while they are starting to produce, it is slow going and nowhere near where this farm's berries were in the process. And, as I indicated above, the birds LOVE to eat my berries so I put netting on top. I found it amazing that the farm doesn't need to do anything. The farmer told me that the birds are more interested in eating the plums so tend to leave the berries alone.

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

The garden is growing and I am able to harvest greens and herbs often. The rabbit LOVES hopping around the garden as do the chicks who are growing at an unbelievable rate.

I've been letting them spend some time in their coop and although the run is not yet ready, I let them play inside and also free range my yard and garden with me nearby.

I have a feeling I may have two roosters. It's still too early to tell but if you look at this photo below you will see the exact same breed chicken, hatched the same day with a BIG difference in their comb size and body size. I have another set that should look the same with the same obvious difference. Time will tell - but the first cocka-doodle-doo and off they go.

I want to be really careful not to waste anything we grow and that can be a challenge. The greens wilt very fast if they are not kept the right way.

We usually eat salad every day which helps keep the lettuce working for us but the herbs can be hard to use in such abundance. Tonight we worked to wash and preserve the herbs and lettuce together so it will last a little longer.

The basil, mint and parsley do best when they are treated like flowers and put in a glass of water. The rosemary and thyme will go in the fridge wrapped loosely in plastic wrap.

And the girls washed and paper towel dried all the lettuce we didn't eat tonight and then wrapped it loosely in paper towels inside plastic bags to keep.

Even with this... we need to eat this stuff up soon. I was trying to find something unique to make with these but nothing really appealed to me, so I think I'm going to try a pesto/mint/parsley pesto recipe I found online. I may also freeze some.

With all the cooking I do, I do not own a food processor! I am getting one but because of that, we had to make our basil "pesto" more like chimichurri but we loved it anyway.

If you have any new recipes to share, let me know. I saw a nice parsley ravioli that looked interesting.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Last week began a series of little classes I am offering in my old daycare space to children in town and in my neighborhood. Nature Detectives is VERY full and each week we focus on a new subject of learning about nature. Last week was The Sun and Sundials to celebrate the Summer Solstice. It was so nice to have neighborhood children walking to my house and friends of mine dropping off their children to spend the morning learning with us.

We made pretty woven suns in miniature format from the tutorial in our Midsummer Festival E-Book (by the way, there is a SALE right now for only two more days!)

We also played fun nature games and made pocket sundials.

The class is so big I employed my teenager to help as well as my friend who does the outdoor programs with me through Park and Rec. It is so nice to have such a big response so soon... but it was also a lot of prepping and difficult to find enough activities to keep the children engaged for the full two hours.

We also made simple paper plate sundials and tested them outdoors.

My little Nature Detectives! It's so funny how big my own daughters are compared to these children now. They are still willing participants in all of my classes but it's pretty obvious they are growing up and away from our Little Acorn days.

I also held my first Learn to Crochet class with a small group of girls last week.

Crochet is NOT easy to teach but once they mastered how to hold the yarn and hook, they were able to learn the chain stitch and made a VERY long chain that we turned into necklaces and belts.

Tomorrow is week two of both classes. I worked hard tonight preparing in advance and hope it goes ok.

I also have a Mommy and Me Learn to Crochet Class starting on Thursday night. That should be really fun.

In between, my husband has been working so hard building me a beautiful chicken run so I can move my chicks outside soon. And I've been working in the garden a lot.

The chicks are getting SO big and they LOVE it when I take them into the garden to free range. I let the bunny out too and it's so cute to see them all in there together.

I think I may have two roosters though. They are still too young to know for sure but their combs are huge compared to their same breed sister and it's pretty obvious there is a distinct difference in the way they look, their size and also the noise they make. We will have to see how it all works out but I won't be keeping roosters... so we may be down to only 6 chickens. I knew I should have gotten more!

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About Eileen

Eileen is a wife and work-at-home mom to four beautiful daughters. For over ten years, she ran a Waldorf Inspired Home Childcare out of her Brookfield, Connecticut Home and she uses that knowledge to write and publish monthly guides and ecourses for parents and teachers interested in bringing a holistic approach to learning into their home or school.

whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world." Mother Theresa

"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education." -Luther Burbank